Blackmail (1929 film)

Blackmail
File:Blackmail1.jpg original poster
Directed by	Alfred Hitchcock Frank Mills (asst. director)
Screenplay by	Alfred Hitchcock (adaptation) Charles Bennett (play)
Story by	Charles Bennett
Produced by	John Maxwell
Starring	Anny Ondra John Longden Cyril Ritchard
Cinematography	Jack E. Cox
Edited by	Emile de Ruelle
Music by	Campbell and Connelly (original music) Hubert Bath (orchestration)
Distributed by	British International Pictures
Release date	30 June 1929 (1929-06-30)
Running time	84 minutes (6740 ft [silent version]) (7136 ft [sound version])
Country	Template:Film UK
Language	English

Blackmail is a 1929 British thriller drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Cyril Ritchard, and featuring Donald Calthrop, Sara Allgood and Charles Paton.

The film is based on the play Blackmail by Charles Bennett, as adapted by Hitchcock, with dialogue by Benn Levy. Having begun production as a silent film, the studio, British International Pictures, decided to convert it to sound during shooting. A silent version was released for theaters not equipped for sound (at 6740 feet), with the sound version (7136 feet) released at the same time. The silent version still exists in the British Film Institute collection.

Role in UK film history

As an early "talkie", the film is frequently cited by film historians as a landmark film, and is often cited as the first truly British "all-talkie" feature film.

Earlier British sound films include:

• The Gentleman, a short film in the Phonofilm sound-on-film process, directed by William J. Elliott, and released in the UK in June 1925;
• The part-talking The Clue of the New Pin, based on the novel by Edgar Wallace, and filmed in British Phototone, a sound-on-disc system using 12-inch discs;
• The Crimson Circle, a UK-German silent film, also based on a Wallace novel, dubbed after the fact with the Phonofilm sound-on-film process;
• Black Waters, a British all-talkie production shot in the US and released on 6 April 1929.

In March 1929, Pin and Circle were trade-shown at the same screening for film exhibitors in London.

Plot

Scotland Yard Detective Frank Webber (John Longden) escorts his girlfriend Alice White (Anny Ondra) to a tea house. They have an argument and Alice leaves with Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard), an artist whom she has earlier agreed to meet. At his studio, Crewe sings and plays "Miss Up-to-Date" on the piano, and shows her a painting of a laughing clown. Alice innocently flirts with the artist. He convinces her to try on a dress, then attempts to rape her as she is changing. Alice grabs a nearby bread knife and stabs him to death.

Alice leaves after attempting to conceal any evidence of her presence in the flat. She has, however, unknowingly left her gloves behind. The next day Frank is assigned to the case and finds one of the gloves. He realizes the glove belongs to Alice and visits Alice at her father's shop. Local petty thief Tracey (Donald Calthrop), who saw Alice at the artist's flat earlier, interrupts the two and attempts to blackmail the couple. Frank tells Tracey his attempt will fail.

The tables are turned when Tracey becomes the chief suspect after the artist's landlady identifies him as being at the scene of the crime. Tracey flees and is pursued by the police. He clambers onto the domed roof of the British Museum Reading Room and is killed after falling through a glass panel of the dome.

Alice feels compelled to confess she killed the artist and goes to Scotland Yard. She attempts to talk to the Chief Inspector but is escorted out by Frank. As they leave, Crewe's painting showing the laughing clown is carried past them.

Production

The film began production as a silent film. To cash in on the new popularity of talkies, the film's producer, John Maxwell of British International Pictures, gave Hitchcock the go-ahead to film a portion of the movie in sound. Hitchcock thought the idea absurd and surreptitiously filmed almost the entire feature in sound along with a silent version for theatres not yet equipped for talking pictures.

Blackmail, marketed as one of Britain's earliest "all-talkie" feature films, was recorded in the RCA Photophone sound-on-film process. (The first U.S. all-talking film, Lights of New York, was released in July 1928 by Warner Brothers.)

Lead actress Anny Ondra was raised in Prague and had a heavy Czech accent that was felt unsuitable for the film. Sound was in its infancy at the time and it was impossible to post-dub Ondra's voice. Rather than replace her and re-shoot her portions of the film, actress Joan Barry was hired to actually speak the dialogue off-camera while Anny lip-synched them for the film. This makes Ondra's performance seem slightly awkward.

Ondra's career in the UK was hurt by sound. She returned to Germany and retired from films after making a few additional movies and marrying boxer Max Schmeling in 1933. However, an amusing test film has survived of Hitchcock "interviewing" Ondra, in which the director teases the actress and asks her some personal questions.

Hitchcock used several elements that would become Hitchcock "trademarks" including a beautiful blonde in peril and a famous landmark in the finale. Without informing the producers, Hitchcock used the Schüfftan process to film the scenes in the Reading Room of the British Museum since the light levels were too low for normal filming.

On this production, future directors Ronald Neame worked as a "clapper boy" operating the clapperboard and Michael Powell took still photographs.

The film was a critical and commercial hit. The sound was praised as inventive. A completed silent version of Blackmail was released in 1929 shortly after the talkie version hit theaters. The silent version of Blackmail actually ran longer in theaters and proved more popular, largely because most theaters in Britain were not yet equipped for sound. Despite the popularity of the silent version, history best remembers the landmark talkie version of Blackmail. It is the version now generally available although some critics consider the silent version superior. Alfred Hitchcock filmed the silent version with Sam Livesey as the Chief Inspector and the sound version with Harvey Braban in the same role.

Cast

• Anny Ondra as Alice White
• Sara Allgood as Mrs. White
• Charles Paton as Mr. White
• John Longden as Det. Frank Webber
• Donald Calthrop as Tracy
• Cyril Ritchard as Mr. Crewe (the artist)
• Hannah Jones as Mrs. Humphries (the landlady)
• Harvey Braban as The Chief Inspector (sound version)
• Ex-Det. Sergt. Bishop as The Detective Sergeant
• Johnny Butt as Sergeant (uncredited)
• Alfred Hitchcock as Man on subway (uncredited)
• Phyllis Konstam as bit part (uncredited)
• Sam Livesey as The Chief Inspector (silent version, uncredited)
• Phyllis Monkman as Gossip (uncredited)
• Percy Parsons as Crook (uncredited)

Hitchcock's cameo

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo, a signature occurrence in many of Hitchcock's films, shows him being bothered by a small boy as he reads a book on the London Underground. This is probably the lengthiest cameo appearance Hitchcock performed in his film career. The child was Jacque Carter. As the director became better-known to audiences, especially when he appeared as the host of his own television series, he dramatically shortened his on-screen appearances.

References

Bibliography

• Ryall, Tom, Blackmail (London: British Film Institute, 1993)

External links

• Blackmail at IMDb
• Blackmail at Rotten Tomatoes
• Blackmail at the TCM Movie Database
• Blackmail at SilentEra
• Blackmail at BFI Database
• Blackmail at AllMovie
• Blackmail at the BFI's Screenonline
• Blackmail at Eyegate Gallery
• Blackmail Sound Test at YouTube